Joe Cuba: The Father of New York Boogaloo has
passedThe "Father of Boogaloo," Joe Cuba, passed
away on Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 4 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New
York. He was the most popular exponent of the boogaloo, a fused Latino and
R&B rhythm that exploded onto the American top 40s charts during the
turbulent 1960s & ‘70s. Hits such as “Bang Bang,” “Push Push,” “El
Pito,” “Ariñañara,” and “Sock It To Me Baby,” rocked the hit parades
establishing Joe Cuba and his Sextet as the definitive sound of Latin New
York during the ‘60s & ‘70s. The Joe Cuba Sextet’s unusual
instrumentation featured vibraphones replacing the traditional brass sound. His
music was at the forefront of the Nuyroican movement of New York where the
children of Puerto Rican emigrants, America’s last citizens, took music,
culture, arts and politics into their own hands.

Joe Cuba’s Sextet
became popular in the New York Latino community precisely because it fused a
bilingual mix of Afro-Caribbean genres blended with the popular urban rhythm
& blues of its time creating a musical marriage between the Fania and Motown
sound. His was the first musical introduction to Latin rhythms for many American
aficionados. The lyrics to Cuba's repertoire mixed Spanish and English, becoming
an important part of the emerging Nuyorican identity.

“Joe Cuba’s
music validated the developing Nuyorican population whose language and music
Cuba captured with his sound,” underlines Giora Breil, CEO of
Emusica, the company that now owns the Fania label and who has remastered
many of the classics to a new generation of music lovers. “He led the
urban tribe,” pointed Breil, “into a united front of cultural warriors
that were defining the social and political times they lived
in.”

Longtime manager and promoter Hector Maisonave recalls Cuba as
”an innovator who crossed over into mainstream music at an early time.
He was the soul of El Barrio. After Joe Cuba, El Barrio is just a street
that crosses an avenue.”

In 1962, Cuba recorded "To Be With You"
with the vocals of Cheo Feliciano and Jimmy Sabater whose careers he
spotlighted after the bands introductory appearance at the Stardust Ballroom
prior to its summer stint in the Catskills.

Born in 1931 in the heart of
Spanish Harlem, his Puerto Rican parents arrived in New York City in the 20s.
Christened "Gilberto Miguel Calderón," Cuba was a “doo wopper” who played
for J. Panama in 1950 when he was a young 19 year old before going on to play
for La Alfarona X, where the young “congüerro/” percussionist replaced Sabu
Martinez tapped to play with Xavier Cugat.

By 1965, the Sextet got their
first crossover hit with the Latino and soul fusion of "El Pito” (I Never Go
Back To Georgia), a tune Cuba recorded against the advice of the producer later
to be “broken” by a DJ over WBLS FM in N.Y.. The Dizzy Gillespie "Never Go
Back To Georgia" chant was taken from the intro to the seminal Afro-Cuban
tune, "Manteca." Vocalist Jimmy Sabater later revealed that "none of us had ever
been to Georgia." In fact, Cuba later comically described a conversation he had
with the Governor of Georgia who called him demanding why he would record a song
whose chorus negatively derided the still segregated Southern town. The quick
thinking Joe Cuba replied, “Georgia is the name of my girl.”

In 1967, Joe
Cuba’s band --–with no horns– scored a "hit" in the United States National Hit
Parade List with the song "Bang Bang" - a tune that ushered in the Latin
Boogaloo era. He also had a #1 hit, that year on the Billboard charts with the
song "Sock It To Me Baby." The band’s instrumentation included congas, timbales,
an occasional bongo, bass, piano and vibraphone. “A bastard sound,” is
what Cuba called it pointing to the fans, the people, as the true creators of
this music. “You don’t go into a rehearsal and say ‘Hey, let’s invent a
new sound, or dance.’ They happen. The boogaloo came out of left
field. “ Joe Cuba recounts in Mary Kent’s book:” Salsa Talks: A Musical
History Uncovered. “It’s the public that creates new dances and
different things. The audience invents, the audience relates to what you
are doing and then puts their thing into what you are playing,” pointing to
other artists such as Ricardo Ray or Hector Rivera as pioneers of the urban
fused rhythm.

“I met Joe up in the Catskills in 1955,” recalls
nine time Grammy Award winner Eddie Palmieri. “When I later started La
Perfecta,” Palmieri muses, “we alternated on stages with Joe. He
was full of life and had a great sense of humor, always laughing at his own
jokes,” chuckles the pianist. Palmieri pointed to Cuba’s many musical
contributions underlining the power and popularity of his small band and
bilingual lyrics while providing a springboard for the harmonies and careers of
Cheo Feliciano, Willie Torres and Jimmy Sabater. “He was Spanish Harlem
personified,” describes Palmieri recalling the “take no prisoners” attitude
Cuba had when it came to dealing with those who reluctantly paid the
musicians. Recalling their early recording days with the infamous Morris
Levy, Palmieri cites the antics of Joe Cuba, Ismael Rivera and himself as the
reason for Levy selling them as a Tico package to Fania label owner, Jerry
Masucci.

Funny, irreverent and with a great humor for practical jokes,
Joe Cuba, or Sonny as he was called by his closest friends, was raised in East
Harlem. Stickball being the main sport for young boys of the neighborhood,
Cuba’s father organized a stickball club called the Devils. After Cuba broke a
leg, he took up playing the conga and continued to practice between school and
his free time. Eventually, he graduated from high school and joined a
band.

“He was not afraid to experiment,” said David Fernandez,
arranger & musical director of Zon del Barrio who played with the legendary
Cuba when he arrived in New York in 2002.

By 1954, at the suggestion of
his agent to change the band's name from the Jose Calderon Sextet to the Joe
Cuba Sextet, the newly named Joe Cuba Sextet made their debut at the Stardust
Ballroom. Charlie Palmieri was musical director of the sextet before his
untimely 1988 death from a heart attack.

Since then, the Joe Cuba Sextet
and band has been a staple of concerts and festivals that unite both Latinos,
African-Americans and just plain music lovers in venues all over the
world.

In 2004, Joe Cuba was named Grand Marshall
of the Puerto Rican Day Parade celebrated in Yonkers, New York. Musician Willie
Villegas who traveled with Joe for the past 15 years said, “It didn’t matter
where we played around the world Joe would always turn to me and say, To My
Barrio…. With Love! " Joe Cuba is survived by his wife Maria Calderon,
sons Mitchell and Cesar, daughter Lisa, and grandchildren Nicole and Alexis.